A minute with Barks

[Gianfranco Goria - Anonima Fumetti - Italian Cartoonists Society]

>Gianfranco, what about copyright laws in Italy? I've heard it's a paradise for 
>bootleggers there.

I've heard it too... ;-)
But it's not as you may think. Indeed the laws are more or less as in other
countries, simply the judges are not cruel if you don't make *business*
(money) with illegal copies. 
But I heard that in USA copyright laws are hard: then, how is it possible
that Walt Disney co. does not pay royalties to writers and artists when
re-printing their stories? And how is it that WDco does not give back the
original artworks to their artists? 
WDco. does this way not only in the USA but also in Italy (and I suppose,
everywhere). So, you see, even in the States the law is not equal for all
(at least if one is a poor cartoonist and the other is a big industry).
In Italy (and I suppose in almost avery country) tha copyright law says that
the publisher MUST pay royalties when reprintig something, and that he MUST
give back the original artwork. Sergio Bonelli comics publisher (the biggest
one in Italy, after WDco.) does it, while WDco. does not. You can understand
that the judge may be good to the one who does not make money breaking the
copyright law; what should he do to the one who makes Billions breaking the
law (or, if you want, "adapting" the law to suit their wishes)? Some day the
artists may no more bear these things and unite to make the law applied (or,
at least, work for someone else).
All this is dedicated to the Disney "spies" on the Internet... Beware of Karma.
Bye! :-)